


like the back of his hand

by lancedreaming



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, background hunk and pidge sry, gives an intro to their relationship, i would not say angst but???, then dives right in, they argue?? kinda, well its more about college decisions, whatever just read it and figure it out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 09:23:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14053863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lancedreaming/pseuds/lancedreaming
Summary: time flies and it's senior year already. it seems like just yesterday that they were freshmen and lance hated keith. or had a big fat crush on him. whatever.the point is, they're older now and they want different things, but they want to stay together. what's going to happen after high school ends?





	like the back of his hand

**Author's Note:**

> title based off of ed sheeran’s she. actually, the entire bloody thing was meant to be based on the story of the song. but then i didn't want it to be angsty but the title just stuck. so here is a story about leaving. just… klance-ified. and happy! so, a lot less based on the song than i originally intended. oh well!

I guess you could say it started in the ninth grade.

Not their _relationship_ , but, their relationship _._

 

Lance was extremely excited to be in biology class for his freshman year science. Most ninth year kids had to take general science, but not Lance. He had worked extremely hard in middle school to be able to get this far in high school.

He had always been the funny one, the outgoing one, but never the smart one.

So when he started coming home with straight A’s and the highest grades in the class, his family and teachers were really impressed.

It’s not like he went around bragging about how often he studied, how many nights he stayed up late to make sure that he had those formulas memorized. He didn’t want to seem like a nerd.

Or that he was desperate to excel.

But with these achievements came an unexpected side effect: the pressure to keep it up.

And it’s not that Lance isn’t good under pressure, it’s just that he’s bad at handling it internally. So he continued to do well in school, but it was tearing him apart.

Getting into the tenth grade science class wasn’t enough for him, he wanted to be the best student in his class. And he certainly was for the first semester and most of the second. But halfway through the year, that’s when _he_ arrived, and stole Lance’s top spot right from under him.

 

“I can’t stand that guy!” Lance complained to his best friend’s over lunch.

“There, there buddy. You can’t always be the best,” his friend Hunk patted his knee and tried to console him.

“But I’ve been working so hard for this. I always do,” Lance couldn’t help but get down on himself for it. He did well only because he studied a lot, he wasn’t naturally smart like that new kid.

His other friend, Pidge, seemed able to read his thoughts, “Yeah, you do work hard. But who’s to say that he isn’t studying like you do, too?”

Lance figured that this made sense, but he felt down on himself so he continued to pout.

“Anyway, he’s not even that bad. He’s quiet but pretty funny. He’s my partner in English” Pidge continued.

“What!” Lance exclaimed, embarrassingly loud, if the blush on his face was any indication as the eyes of those around him focused on his outburst.

He hadn’t even realized that he had stood up.

He sheepishly sat back down and continued, “And he’s a freshman? I thought he was at least a sophomore! This sucks.”

“I know Lance, but you shouldn’t take your anger out on him. He’s new here, he probably just wants some friends and you’re giving him a hard time,” Hunk said.

Lance felt betrayed! Hunk, his very own best friend, was picking the side of the kid that was messing everything up! Lance was started to actually get angry, but then he stopped himself. If Hunk was telling him that, then it was probably true. Maybe he should cut the guy a break.

But he wasn’t going to let _them_ know that he thought that, “yeah well, it’s not just that he’s doing better than me. He’s just the worst!”

“Oh come on, Lance,” Pidge scoffed. “What else could he _possibly_ be doing to you?”

Lance was blushing again, flustered and floundering for something to justify his position, “Well… well, he… he has stupid hair! Yeah, his hair is terrible. Is it a mullet? Did he cut it himself?”

Pidge laughed at Lance, “what a great reason to hate someone.”

“It’s not just that either! He wears these stupid fingerless gloves all the time that are so… distracting. I look over because he’s writing a mile a minute and tapping away on his desk at the same time and I can’t even figure out _how_ he does it, and then I see that his long fingers are covered in these dumb gloves! How stupid is that? And when he takes tests, his eyebrows are pushed together the whole time and I just want to smooth them out like, _dude it's not that big of a deal._ And--” he was cut off by Pidge doubling over in laughter.

“What?” he huffed indignantly.

Hunk was chuckling, too, an answered for Pidge since her laughter had overtaken her, “it sounds more like you like him than you hate him.”

Lance spluttered, “wha-what? Me? Like him? No way!”

“Lance has a cruuuuuush,” Pidge teased with a shit-eating grin.

“Of course I don’t! I hate that guy!” Lance was beet red at this point.

“So, then I’m sure you would _hate_ that I invited him to sit with us at lunch tomorrow?” Pidge teased with a smirk.

Lance turned his back on the giggling pair, still blushing. “Well, like Hunk said, the guy is probably looking for friends. And it would be rude to cancel on him. So sure, he can eat with us. But that doesn’t mean I’ll talk to him.”

 

(The next day, the second that Keith sat down at the lunch table, Lance was the first to talk to him.

“I’m Lance, but you probably already knew that.”

“Um, why would I know that?”

“Dude! I sit right next to you in Bio!”)

While their friendship started off rocky, it quickly blossomed into something beautiful. And by the start of sophomore year, they were dating.

 

**_SENIOR YEAR_ **

College decisions start the first day of senior year. You ask for recommendations, you go on campus tours, and you buy college merch while it’s on sale.

Not for Keith though. He dragged his feet about it until mid December, when Lance forced him to do them.

It was a cold, winter’s evening and the pair were seated on Lance’s bed, a laptop set between them. “Can’t we just hang out tonight? I’m not really in the mood for this,” Keith frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.

Lance sighed, “Honey, you’re never in the mood for this. That’s why you missed all of the early admission deadlines. We can’t put this off any longer.”

As much as Keith was annoyed that they were wasting their time together on applying to colleges, he secretly loved how Lance referred to the process as “we”. Like they were planning their futures together. Which they were; Lance was forcing Keith to apply to all the schools that he had already applied to (Lance was really on top of his college shit) and some others that interested Keith.

Keith remained silent so Lance pulled the laptop into his own lap, “Okay, just let me handle it.”

He filled out all of the resumé information that Keith gave him, answered the supplementary questions for him, and uploaded his financial aid forms and essays for him.

After watching Lance fill out a third application, Keith had had enough. “This is exhausting,” he sighed as he flopped back onto the bed.

Lance snorted, “you’re telling me.” He moved the laptop onto the bedside table and lay down next to Keith.

Keith pressed his palm against Lance’s and threaded their fingers together as Lance let out a contented sigh and put his head on Keith’s shoulder.

They lay in silence for several minutes, enjoying each other’s presence and warmth. Lance’s breathing slowed and he seemed to be nodding off to sleep.

“Lance?” Keith whispered nervously. He had to bring this up sooner or later. He was secretly hoping that Lance _had_ fallen asleep, and that he could put it off.

“Yeah?” Lance replied. Guess he had to talk about it sooner, then.

Keith bit his lip, “what if… what if I don’t want to go to college?”

Lance’s soft breathing stilled. He sat up in bed and turned to Keith, “what do you mean?”

Keith sighed, “Lance--”

“What do you _mean?_ This is the first time I’m hearing of this, you have never expressed this to me before.” His nostrils were flaring. Keith had made him mad.

He put a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder, “Lance lay back down.”

“How can I--”

“Baby,” Keith breathed, “please.”

Lance swallowed. He nodded. He laid back down.

“Lance, I” his voice broke. Lance grabbed his hand. “I don’t know if that’s what I want. You know that school wasn’t always… good for me--”

“College will be different,” Lance interrupted, to assure him.

Keith looked at him with a sad smile, “but how do you know that?”

Lance looked a little defeated at that, “I… you…” He sighed and smiled, “we have to hope.”

Keith wanted to believe in that smile, that hope. But he was also realistic, “Look, I know that you think I’m smart and that I have potential for school. But I can’t imagine sitting in classrooms any longer. Lance I, I don’t even know if I can do it for the rest of the year. It’s just hard to focus enough, I don’t know if I could do it for four more years.” His voice was wobbly throughout the speech.

Lance put a hand on his cheek to comfort him, and Keith held on to his wrist. “Do you know what you’ll do instead?” He asked, voice a whisper.

“I could work at the mechanics shop in town. I know my way around cars pretty well.” Keith whispered back, unsure.

“Or you could go to school with me and we could figure it out, together.” Lance tried to convince him. “Or, if you’re not sure and don’t want to spend the money, you could stay here and take classes at the community college and figure out what you want. Figure out what’s hands on, I know you’d love something like that,” he was pleading now.

“But that’s still school,” Keith tried to tell him.

“Keith, you are too damn smart to not do something intellectual with that big fat brain of yours. If dumb me is going to college, you bet your ass that you are too--” Lance started but Keith shut that down.

He grabbed Lance’s face and turned it towards his own, “You are not turning it into that. You are not using your self deprecation to justify what you think I should do. And you _know_ that stuff isn’t true, Lance. You’re the smartest person I know.” Keith ran his thumbs over Lance’s cheekbones. And then under his eye when a tear escaped.

“What are you even saying, our best friends are literal geniuses,” Lance let out a watery laugh.

Keith wore a goofy smile, “I don’t care, you’re smarter.”

Lance blushed, “you're only saying that because you love me.”

“I do love you,” Keith breathed out happily, his eyes closing as he planted a soft kiss on Lance’s cheek.

“And I love you too, which is why I want to see you be the best that you can be,” Lance tried again.

Keith rolled his eyes, but smiled, “And maybe going to college isn’t the best for me right now.”

“But you’ll think about it?” Lance asked, eyes shining.

Keith was weak to that expression, “of course I will.”

Lance hummed at this and pulled Keith into him, laying his head against his heart, right where he should be. “I’m just worried,” Lance confessed.

Keith pulled back to look at Lance, “about what?”

“That…” Lance bit his lip, “that it will be harder to make this work if you stay here and I go away.”

Keith’s heart sunk to the bottom of his stomach. He had thought about this, too. He just hoped that they wouldn’t talk about it so soon.

“Lance you know I would do anything to make this work.”

Lance laughed, “I know that silly. I will too. I just know that it will _take_ work. Not like it hasn’t, but… this will be more work. We won’t be a couple blocks away from each other anymore. The closest college I applied to is forty minutes away, and the farthest is like five hours.”

“I also want what’s best for you. So if I decide to stay, I don’t want that to affect your decision at all.” Keith told him. He was serious, of course. But he also wished that Lance would stay close. But he would never forgive himself if he held Lance back, more than he already felt like he did.

“Of course it will. I want to be near you, I want to be with you. Why do you think I just spent the last two hours of our lives helping you apply to all of _my_ colleges?” Lance chuckled. “But if I do stay close and I don’t like it? Fuck you then, I’m transferring somewhere better.”

Now Keith was laughing, his shoulders shaking with the sound.

Lance carded his fingers through the hair at the back of Keith’s neck, glancing up at him, “does that sound good?”

Keith giggled, “perfect.”

 

(Keith got into every school he applied to, but opted to stay home. He begrudgingly enrolled in classes at the community college because Lance threatened not to come home on weekends if he didn’t.

“You can choose a class in anything! Even something you never tried before. How about pottery? That’s hands on.”

“Lance no, I suck at art.”

“What a shame, I would have loved to use a mug handmade for me by my boyfriend. I would use it for my coffee everyday when I’m away.”

“... I suddenly have a passion for ceramics.”

Lance chose the school that was forty minutes away, insisting that it was his top choice. It really was, but Keith had a hard time believing that coincidence.

“Omg babe it's not a coincidence, it’s fate!”

“You better not be lying to me”

“How dare you, I would never!”

Keith visited him on campus within the first month, and the drive was only thirty minutes… if he ignored the speed limit.

Keith ended up loving his ceramics class, but not as much as Lance loved all the gifts that Keith made for him.)

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed it. i wanted to showcase a relationship where people want different things for themselves and for each other, but i also wanted it to end happily. also i wanted to reveal a relationship that wasn’t perfect, and showcase the anxieties that they both have about themselves and within their relationships that are so often there in a high school relationship. well, in any relationship i guess but that’s not my area of expertise. anyway, confront the issues that you have in any relationship for the well-being of everyone involved!!! o yea, and follow my twitter (@lancedreaming) !!!!!


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